Indian Express: 'Fatigue drove sailor to ram coal ship into Great Barrier Reef'
An overtired first mate who had slept less than 3 hours in almost two days was partly to blame for sending a fully-laden Chinese coal ship slamming into the Great Barrier Reef last year and causing a minor fuel spill, investigators said on Thursday.
The environmental damage from the grounding was largely limited to a gouge in a piece of the World Heritage listed reef, but the accident raised fears about the potential for a much bigger disaster because the reef lines one of the busiest shipping routes from Australia's coal mines and Asia.
Officials in Queensland state where the grounding occurred said today that new satellite monitoring systems introduced in response to the incident would start operating in July to guard against future problems.
The Chinese-registered Shen Neng 1 strayed from a shipping lane off northeast Queensland and ran aground on April 3 last year, spilling nearly 3 tons of fuel oil and etching a scar across a coral shoal that experts say may take 20 years to heal.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau concluded in a final report released today that a number of factors contributed to the accident, but the grounding ultimately happened because the chief mate failed to correctly monitor the ship's position and to alter its course when he should have.
The investigators found that the chief mate had slept just 2 1/2 hours in the 38 hours before the grounding because he was supervising the entry of the ship to port and the loading of its cargo of 20,000 tons of coal.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Dolphin poaching goes unabated
The Times of India: Dolphin poaching goes unabated
PATNA: Despite Gangetic dolphins being an endangered species, they are being killed at an alarming rate in Bihar.
"More and more fishermen are using oil extracted from dolphins for fishing. April is one of the peak months for fishing and several fishermen in the state capital can be found using dolphin oil for better catch," said India's Dolphin Man, R K Sinha.
Talking to TOI, Sinha said about 25 to 30 dolphins are being killed every year in the state. As per forest department data, in the state capital alone five dolphins were killed in 2010, three in 2009 and only one in 2008.
"The amount of dolphin oil being used by fishermen is a clear indication that dolphins are being killed. Otherwise, its oil would not be available," Sinha added.
Poaching continues unabated along the Ganga in other parts of Bihar where awareness is relatively low, according to experts.
Dolphin oil attracts two unique species of fish - "Bachhaba" and "Gheruwa" - which are sold at premium prices. "Both these species are very tasty and have very few bones. They are sold at Rs 250 to Rs 300 per kg. It is one of the main reasons why fishermen use dolphin oil," said Zoological Survey of India scientist Gopal Sharma.
Experts estimate the current number of Gangetic dolphins at around 2,000. The World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF) says that in the 1980s, there were around 3,500 dolphins in the Ganga delta region alone. Researches, however, show that 95% of dolphin deaths are directly attributed to man-related causes.
According to night guards stationed at the newly-constructed food plaza in Ganga diara, fishermen use large nets for fishing. "Large nets are not allowed here. But beat officers of the forest department only sometimes come to keep vigil and fishermen stealthily use large nets during night to catch large amount of fishes," said a guard.
Confusion about territorial jurisdiction among forest officials also adds to the problem. "Ganga diara comes under the jurisdiction of Saran district. But we also have to keep a watch on dolphins found in these areas. Actually it is the job of the forest department of Saran district," a forest official said in the state capital, requesting anonymity.
"The Gangetic dolphin is to river what a tiger is to forest. It plays a vital role in maintaining the essential balance of river ecosystem. Its declining status is a matter of serious concern. It is critical time to focus attention on improving its status soon," said Gopal Sharma.
Gangetic dolphins, one of the four freshwater dolphins in the world, are protected animals under the Schedule 1 of Wildlife (Protection) Act-1972.
PATNA: Despite Gangetic dolphins being an endangered species, they are being killed at an alarming rate in Bihar.
"More and more fishermen are using oil extracted from dolphins for fishing. April is one of the peak months for fishing and several fishermen in the state capital can be found using dolphin oil for better catch," said India's Dolphin Man, R K Sinha.
Talking to TOI, Sinha said about 25 to 30 dolphins are being killed every year in the state. As per forest department data, in the state capital alone five dolphins were killed in 2010, three in 2009 and only one in 2008.
"The amount of dolphin oil being used by fishermen is a clear indication that dolphins are being killed. Otherwise, its oil would not be available," Sinha added.
Poaching continues unabated along the Ganga in other parts of Bihar where awareness is relatively low, according to experts.
Dolphin oil attracts two unique species of fish - "Bachhaba" and "Gheruwa" - which are sold at premium prices. "Both these species are very tasty and have very few bones. They are sold at Rs 250 to Rs 300 per kg. It is one of the main reasons why fishermen use dolphin oil," said Zoological Survey of India scientist Gopal Sharma.
Experts estimate the current number of Gangetic dolphins at around 2,000. The World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF) says that in the 1980s, there were around 3,500 dolphins in the Ganga delta region alone. Researches, however, show that 95% of dolphin deaths are directly attributed to man-related causes.
According to night guards stationed at the newly-constructed food plaza in Ganga diara, fishermen use large nets for fishing. "Large nets are not allowed here. But beat officers of the forest department only sometimes come to keep vigil and fishermen stealthily use large nets during night to catch large amount of fishes," said a guard.
Confusion about territorial jurisdiction among forest officials also adds to the problem. "Ganga diara comes under the jurisdiction of Saran district. But we also have to keep a watch on dolphins found in these areas. Actually it is the job of the forest department of Saran district," a forest official said in the state capital, requesting anonymity.
"The Gangetic dolphin is to river what a tiger is to forest. It plays a vital role in maintaining the essential balance of river ecosystem. Its declining status is a matter of serious concern. It is critical time to focus attention on improving its status soon," said Gopal Sharma.
Gangetic dolphins, one of the four freshwater dolphins in the world, are protected animals under the Schedule 1 of Wildlife (Protection) Act-1972.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Transocean claims underwater drilling record
World Radio Switzerland: Transocean claims underwater drilling record
Zug-registered oil rig contracter Transocean says it has set a new world record for underwater drilling.
The drillship Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2 reached a depth of 3,100 metres in the ocean off India’s coast.
The rig has a five-year contract there.
Transocean was partly to blame for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a year ago when the company’s rig exploded.
Eleven crew members died and the resulting offshore spill was the largest in American history.
With a management office based in Geneva, Transocean is one of the largest companies traded on the Swiss stock exchange.
Zug-registered oil rig contracter Transocean says it has set a new world record for underwater drilling.
The drillship Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2 reached a depth of 3,100 metres in the ocean off India’s coast.
The rig has a five-year contract there.
Transocean was partly to blame for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a year ago when the company’s rig exploded.
Eleven crew members died and the resulting offshore spill was the largest in American history.
With a management office based in Geneva, Transocean is one of the largest companies traded on the Swiss stock exchange.
Radiation release will hit marine life
Nature News: Radiation release will hit marine life
As radioisotopes pour into the sea from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, one reassuring message has been heard over and over again: the Pacific Ocean is a big place.
That the isotopes will be vastly diluted is not in question. Nevertheless, scientists are calling for a marine survey to begin as soon as possible to assess any damage to ecosystems in the area around Fukushima. Although the contamination is unlikely to cause immediate harm to marine organisms, long-lived isotopes are expected to accumulate in the food chain and may cause problems such as increased mortality in fish and marine-mammal populations.
"Just because you can measure it, doesn't mean it's dangerous," says Ken Buesseler, a marine geochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "Even so, this is the biggest man-made release ever of radioactive material into the oceans. We haven't yet seen enough data to assess what's going on, so anything that can be done in terms of further monitoring would be very welcome."
Online collectionThe past two weeks have seen extremely high concentrations of radioactive iodine-131 (with a half life of 8 days) and caesium-137 (which has a half life of 30 years) in samples of sea water collected near the Fukushima reactors, and even as far as 30 kilometres offshore. By late March, levels were tens of thousands of times higher than before the accident (see 'Radioisotope contamination'). Many other radioisotopes, both long- and short-lived, are also likely to have been released.
But the total amount of radioactivity that has entered the ocean is unknown, and discharges — both accidental and deliberate — are continuing and may even be substantial if any further problems occur at the Fukushima plant (see page 146).
Despite these uncertainties, scientists at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) in Chiba, Japan, are designing studies aimed at monitoring the accumulation of radionuclides in the muscles, organs, eggs and bones of marine organisms. They also plan to model the long-term behaviour of radioisotopes in the marine environment, and the overall radiation doses to which marine organisms will be exposed. "We need to obtain specific concentrations of caesium and iodine isotopes to assess their effects in different marine organisms," says Tatsuo Aono, an expert in marine radioecology at the NIRS.
Click for larger imageA team led by Dominique Boust, director of the French Institute of Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) in Cherbourg, is now predicting the level of contamination in marine organisms and sediments using estimates of the quantity of radioisotopes released from Fukushima, and the ratios of those isotopes calculated from available seawater measurements.
The team calculates that about 50 radioisotopes contribute to an overall concentration of roughly 10,000 becquerels per litre in the sea water within 300 metres of Fukushima. Before the accident, caesium-137 concentrations there were about 0.003 becquerels per litre, and iodine-131 was not detectable. On the basis of these figures, the IRSN researchers suggest that sediments in the region could now contain 10,000–10 million becquerels per kilogram; fish could carry 10,000–100,000 becquerels per kilogram; and algae, some of which are particularly susceptible to iodine uptake, could contain up to 100 million becquerels per kilogram. Japan has legal limits of radioactivity in fish for human consumption of 500 becquerels per kilogram for caesium-137, and 2,000 becquerels per kilogram for iodine-131.
"Doses will decrease very quickly with time and distance from the facility, if no further leaks occur, but there could remain a persistent low-dose component in the local marine environment for many years," says Thomas Hinton, deputy director of the IRSN's Laboratory of Radioecology, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Modelling in Cadarache, France. "The impacts are best addressed through an international long-term assessment."
Ward Whicker, an environmental and radiological health expert at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, agrees that a survey would be worthwhile. "It would require a great deal of sampling effort, near the discharge point as well as at locations farther away," he says. "Concentrations of radionuclides in water, sediments, plankton, molluscs, crustaceans, seaweed and fish would need to be measured, and the health of the ecosystem monitored."
Although radioisotope concentrations in fish, shellfish and seaweed could exceed limits for human consumption for weeks, Whicker thinks that it is unlikely that scientists would be able to detect any genetic effects on marine life. Any affected creatures would probably disperse into the Pacific, or die more quickly, he says. Moreover, teasing out radiological effects from other stresses, such as conventional water pollution and the damage caused by the tsunami, would be extremely difficult.
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An alternative approach could be to focus on a suitable proxy species. "In my opinion, brown seaweed should be the number one research priority," says Bruno Fievet, a radioecologist at the IRNS in Cherbourg. The brown seaweed Laminaria digitata, ubiquitous in the coastal Pacific waters off Japan, absorbs iodine to help defend itself against environmental stresses such as pollution. It can have iodine concentrations some 10,000 times greater than the surrounding sea water. "This species is the world champion in iodine uptake, and it would be a good indicator of the radioactive labelling of other marine organisms," says Fievet.
But sampling may be hampered by the danger that remains at the Fukushima plant. "Any survey would be welcome," says Ulf Riebesell, a biological oceanographer at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany. "But I certainly wouldn't ask my students to do field work off Japan amid this ongoing crisis."
As radioisotopes pour into the sea from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, one reassuring message has been heard over and over again: the Pacific Ocean is a big place.
That the isotopes will be vastly diluted is not in question. Nevertheless, scientists are calling for a marine survey to begin as soon as possible to assess any damage to ecosystems in the area around Fukushima. Although the contamination is unlikely to cause immediate harm to marine organisms, long-lived isotopes are expected to accumulate in the food chain and may cause problems such as increased mortality in fish and marine-mammal populations.
"Just because you can measure it, doesn't mean it's dangerous," says Ken Buesseler, a marine geochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "Even so, this is the biggest man-made release ever of radioactive material into the oceans. We haven't yet seen enough data to assess what's going on, so anything that can be done in terms of further monitoring would be very welcome."
Online collectionThe past two weeks have seen extremely high concentrations of radioactive iodine-131 (with a half life of 8 days) and caesium-137 (which has a half life of 30 years) in samples of sea water collected near the Fukushima reactors, and even as far as 30 kilometres offshore. By late March, levels were tens of thousands of times higher than before the accident (see 'Radioisotope contamination'). Many other radioisotopes, both long- and short-lived, are also likely to have been released.
But the total amount of radioactivity that has entered the ocean is unknown, and discharges — both accidental and deliberate — are continuing and may even be substantial if any further problems occur at the Fukushima plant (see page 146).
Despite these uncertainties, scientists at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) in Chiba, Japan, are designing studies aimed at monitoring the accumulation of radionuclides in the muscles, organs, eggs and bones of marine organisms. They also plan to model the long-term behaviour of radioisotopes in the marine environment, and the overall radiation doses to which marine organisms will be exposed. "We need to obtain specific concentrations of caesium and iodine isotopes to assess their effects in different marine organisms," says Tatsuo Aono, an expert in marine radioecology at the NIRS.
Click for larger imageA team led by Dominique Boust, director of the French Institute of Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) in Cherbourg, is now predicting the level of contamination in marine organisms and sediments using estimates of the quantity of radioisotopes released from Fukushima, and the ratios of those isotopes calculated from available seawater measurements.
The team calculates that about 50 radioisotopes contribute to an overall concentration of roughly 10,000 becquerels per litre in the sea water within 300 metres of Fukushima. Before the accident, caesium-137 concentrations there were about 0.003 becquerels per litre, and iodine-131 was not detectable. On the basis of these figures, the IRSN researchers suggest that sediments in the region could now contain 10,000–10 million becquerels per kilogram; fish could carry 10,000–100,000 becquerels per kilogram; and algae, some of which are particularly susceptible to iodine uptake, could contain up to 100 million becquerels per kilogram. Japan has legal limits of radioactivity in fish for human consumption of 500 becquerels per kilogram for caesium-137, and 2,000 becquerels per kilogram for iodine-131.
"Doses will decrease very quickly with time and distance from the facility, if no further leaks occur, but there could remain a persistent low-dose component in the local marine environment for many years," says Thomas Hinton, deputy director of the IRSN's Laboratory of Radioecology, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Modelling in Cadarache, France. "The impacts are best addressed through an international long-term assessment."
Ward Whicker, an environmental and radiological health expert at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, agrees that a survey would be worthwhile. "It would require a great deal of sampling effort, near the discharge point as well as at locations farther away," he says. "Concentrations of radionuclides in water, sediments, plankton, molluscs, crustaceans, seaweed and fish would need to be measured, and the health of the ecosystem monitored."
Although radioisotope concentrations in fish, shellfish and seaweed could exceed limits for human consumption for weeks, Whicker thinks that it is unlikely that scientists would be able to detect any genetic effects on marine life. Any affected creatures would probably disperse into the Pacific, or die more quickly, he says. Moreover, teasing out radiological effects from other stresses, such as conventional water pollution and the damage caused by the tsunami, would be extremely difficult.
ADVERTISEMENT
An alternative approach could be to focus on a suitable proxy species. "In my opinion, brown seaweed should be the number one research priority," says Bruno Fievet, a radioecologist at the IRNS in Cherbourg. The brown seaweed Laminaria digitata, ubiquitous in the coastal Pacific waters off Japan, absorbs iodine to help defend itself against environmental stresses such as pollution. It can have iodine concentrations some 10,000 times greater than the surrounding sea water. "This species is the world champion in iodine uptake, and it would be a good indicator of the radioactive labelling of other marine organisms," says Fievet.
But sampling may be hampered by the danger that remains at the Fukushima plant. "Any survey would be welcome," says Ulf Riebesell, a biological oceanographer at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany. "But I certainly wouldn't ask my students to do field work off Japan amid this ongoing crisis."
Death -- Not Just Life -- Important Link In Marine Ecosystems; Copepod Carcasses 'Fuel Microbes'
Underwater Times: Study: Death -- Not Just Life -- Important Link In Marine Ecosystems; Copepod Carcasses 'Fuel Microbes'
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Tiny crustaceans called copepods rule the world, at least when it comes to oceans and estuaries.
The most numerous multi-cellular organisms in the seas, copepods are an important link between phytoplankton and fish in marine food webs.
To understand and predict how copepods respond to environmental change, scientists need to know not only how many new copepods are born, but how many are dying, say biological oceanographers David Elliott of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), and Kam Tang of VIMS.
Elliott and Tang realized there was only one way to discover the answer: find the copepods' carcasses.
Mortality of copepods and other zooplankton is often assumed to be the result of predators.
Several studies have observed, however, that many dead copepods are found in samples of seawater. "This is more indicative of non-predatory mortality," says Elliott.
But traditional sampling often ignores the live/dead "status" of the copepods, Elliott says, and little is known about how many copepod carcasses are in fact floating around in the water.
Using a newly improved staining method to help distinguish between live and dead copepods in water samples from Chesapeake Bay, Elliott and Tang observed substantial numbers of intact copepod carcasses.
An average of 12 to 30 percent of the developmental stages of the abundant coastal copepod species Acartia tonsa were dead.
They found that these were likely the result of mortality for other reasons than predators.
"Using a relatively simple staining procedure to distinguish live from dead copepods, Elliott and Tang have been able to arrive at a more accurate picture of predation versus other sources of mortality for estuarine copepod populations," says David Garrison, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research.
The results were published today in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.
To better understand the fate of the copepod carcasses, they conducted a series of field and laboratory experiments to investigate where the copepod carcasses eventually ended up.
"We found that mixing in the water was enough to keep many carcasses in suspension in places like the shallows of Chesapeake Bay," says Elliott.
"Applying the results to the deeper open ocean, copepod carcasses become less dense as they decompose, such that they can reach neutral buoyancy and float around for some time before reaching the sea floor."
Much of the organic matter from copepods that die of non-predatory causes is recycled in sea water, he believes, rather than being directly transferred to the ocean-bottom as the remains of copepods sink.
The information on the fate of copepod carcasses was then used to estimate the rate at which copepods in Chesapeake Bay die from non-predatory causes.
Non-predatory copepod deaths accounted for more than ten percent of all mortality. The finding provides a more accurate view of how copepod abundance changes throughout the year.
"The presence of copepod carcasses in the marine environment indicates the importance of non-predatory mortality factors," says Elliott. "It represents a diversion of energy from the traditional food chain that supports fish, to one that fuels microbes.
"A better understanding of the factors causing non-predatory mortality will improve predictability of the amount of copepod prey available to fish."
That knowledge, in turn, may lead to new ways of looking at the abundance of fish in Chesapeake Bay--and beyond.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Tiny crustaceans called copepods rule the world, at least when it comes to oceans and estuaries.
The most numerous multi-cellular organisms in the seas, copepods are an important link between phytoplankton and fish in marine food webs.
To understand and predict how copepods respond to environmental change, scientists need to know not only how many new copepods are born, but how many are dying, say biological oceanographers David Elliott of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), and Kam Tang of VIMS.
Elliott and Tang realized there was only one way to discover the answer: find the copepods' carcasses.
Mortality of copepods and other zooplankton is often assumed to be the result of predators.
Several studies have observed, however, that many dead copepods are found in samples of seawater. "This is more indicative of non-predatory mortality," says Elliott.
But traditional sampling often ignores the live/dead "status" of the copepods, Elliott says, and little is known about how many copepod carcasses are in fact floating around in the water.
Using a newly improved staining method to help distinguish between live and dead copepods in water samples from Chesapeake Bay, Elliott and Tang observed substantial numbers of intact copepod carcasses.
An average of 12 to 30 percent of the developmental stages of the abundant coastal copepod species Acartia tonsa were dead.
They found that these were likely the result of mortality for other reasons than predators.
"Using a relatively simple staining procedure to distinguish live from dead copepods, Elliott and Tang have been able to arrive at a more accurate picture of predation versus other sources of mortality for estuarine copepod populations," says David Garrison, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research.
The results were published today in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.
To better understand the fate of the copepod carcasses, they conducted a series of field and laboratory experiments to investigate where the copepod carcasses eventually ended up.
"We found that mixing in the water was enough to keep many carcasses in suspension in places like the shallows of Chesapeake Bay," says Elliott.
"Applying the results to the deeper open ocean, copepod carcasses become less dense as they decompose, such that they can reach neutral buoyancy and float around for some time before reaching the sea floor."
Much of the organic matter from copepods that die of non-predatory causes is recycled in sea water, he believes, rather than being directly transferred to the ocean-bottom as the remains of copepods sink.
The information on the fate of copepod carcasses was then used to estimate the rate at which copepods in Chesapeake Bay die from non-predatory causes.
Non-predatory copepod deaths accounted for more than ten percent of all mortality. The finding provides a more accurate view of how copepod abundance changes throughout the year.
"The presence of copepod carcasses in the marine environment indicates the importance of non-predatory mortality factors," says Elliott. "It represents a diversion of energy from the traditional food chain that supports fish, to one that fuels microbes.
"A better understanding of the factors causing non-predatory mortality will improve predictability of the amount of copepod prey available to fish."
That knowledge, in turn, may lead to new ways of looking at the abundance of fish in Chesapeake Bay--and beyond.
Damage from oil spill lingers a year later
iol.co.za: Damage from oil spill lingers a year later
New Orleans - The worst maritime oil spill in history began nearly a year ago with a drop in pressure in a poorly drilled well deep in the Gulf of Mexico. It hasn't really ended even though BP's runaway well was eventually capped 87 days later.
As crews in Japan struggle to contain a nuclear meltdown at a poorly maintained plant in Fukushima, the April 20 anniversary of the BP spill is a stark reminder of the high costs of our energy needs and the far-reaching consequences of cutting corners on safety.
The massive explosion killed 11 workers and sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, unleashing a leak that spewed 206 million gallons of oil before it was finally contained.
Hundreds of miles of fragile coastal wetlands and beaches were contaminated, a third the Gulf's rich US waters were closed to fishing, and the economic costs have reached into the tens of billions.
Months of uncertainty caused deep emotional trauma for the fishermen and coastal residents who feared their way of life was being destroyed. More than 130,000 of them are still trying to push their compensation claims through a clogged system.
“They could give me $500 million and it wouldn't be enough,” said Dean Blanchard, who used to handle as much as 500,000 pounds (226,800 kilograms) of shrimp a day at his Grand Isle, Louisiana
dock.
“It's not the money, it's your life's work. It's what I love, it's what I did my whole life and they just came along and blindsided me.”
Favourable winds and currents, the location of the well - some 50 miles (80 kilometres) off the coast of Louisiana - and about two million gallons of chemical dispersants kept the bulk of the oil from reaching shore.
That protected fragile coastal wetlands, white sandy beaches and millions of nesting birds from the intense damage seen in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez ran aground and 11 million gallons of oil spilled from its cracked hull in 1989.
Yet the damage is certainly not negligible, nor is it over:
crews are still actively cleaning 235 miles (380 kilometres) of coastline and plan to return to around 300 more miles (480
kilometres) once tourism and nesting season is over.
It's also not clear what impact the oily chemical soup which spread through hundreds of miles of Gulf waters will have on its fish, shrimp, dolphins and other marine creatures.
“The outstanding question is did we save something in the short-term to extend a problem in the long-term,” said Larry McKinney, director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
“We just don't have enough information to say one way or another.”
The spill also exposed the industry's shocking lack of preparedness, weak safety culture and dangerously lax government oversight.
“This disaster was almost the inevitable result of years of industry and government complacency and lack of attention to safety,” a presidential commission tasked with investigating the spill concluded.
“As drilling pushes into ever deeper and riskier waters where more of America's oil lies, only systemic reforms of both government and industry will prevent a similar, future disaster,” co-chair William Reilly said when the commission released its recommendations in January.
President Barack Obama imposed a moratorium on deepwater drilling five weeks into the spill as BP's efforts to contain the leak 5,000 feet (1.5 kilometres) below the surface failed, flow estimates rose sharply and the political fallout intensified.
The Interior Department restructured its operations - finally separating safety and environmental enforcement from permitting and revenue generating functions - but still lacks the expertise and the funding to properly oversee the increasingly complex offshore industry.
The moratorium was lifted in October after new safety regulations were established and the first deepwater drilling permit was issued on February 28. Activity is just now picking up, with the tenth permit issued on Friday. - Sapa-AFP
New Orleans - The worst maritime oil spill in history began nearly a year ago with a drop in pressure in a poorly drilled well deep in the Gulf of Mexico. It hasn't really ended even though BP's runaway well was eventually capped 87 days later.
As crews in Japan struggle to contain a nuclear meltdown at a poorly maintained plant in Fukushima, the April 20 anniversary of the BP spill is a stark reminder of the high costs of our energy needs and the far-reaching consequences of cutting corners on safety.
The massive explosion killed 11 workers and sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, unleashing a leak that spewed 206 million gallons of oil before it was finally contained.
Hundreds of miles of fragile coastal wetlands and beaches were contaminated, a third the Gulf's rich US waters were closed to fishing, and the economic costs have reached into the tens of billions.
Months of uncertainty caused deep emotional trauma for the fishermen and coastal residents who feared their way of life was being destroyed. More than 130,000 of them are still trying to push their compensation claims through a clogged system.
“They could give me $500 million and it wouldn't be enough,” said Dean Blanchard, who used to handle as much as 500,000 pounds (226,800 kilograms) of shrimp a day at his Grand Isle, Louisiana
dock.
“It's not the money, it's your life's work. It's what I love, it's what I did my whole life and they just came along and blindsided me.”
Favourable winds and currents, the location of the well - some 50 miles (80 kilometres) off the coast of Louisiana - and about two million gallons of chemical dispersants kept the bulk of the oil from reaching shore.
That protected fragile coastal wetlands, white sandy beaches and millions of nesting birds from the intense damage seen in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez ran aground and 11 million gallons of oil spilled from its cracked hull in 1989.
Yet the damage is certainly not negligible, nor is it over:
crews are still actively cleaning 235 miles (380 kilometres) of coastline and plan to return to around 300 more miles (480
kilometres) once tourism and nesting season is over.
It's also not clear what impact the oily chemical soup which spread through hundreds of miles of Gulf waters will have on its fish, shrimp, dolphins and other marine creatures.
“The outstanding question is did we save something in the short-term to extend a problem in the long-term,” said Larry McKinney, director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
“We just don't have enough information to say one way or another.”
The spill also exposed the industry's shocking lack of preparedness, weak safety culture and dangerously lax government oversight.
“This disaster was almost the inevitable result of years of industry and government complacency and lack of attention to safety,” a presidential commission tasked with investigating the spill concluded.
“As drilling pushes into ever deeper and riskier waters where more of America's oil lies, only systemic reforms of both government and industry will prevent a similar, future disaster,” co-chair William Reilly said when the commission released its recommendations in January.
President Barack Obama imposed a moratorium on deepwater drilling five weeks into the spill as BP's efforts to contain the leak 5,000 feet (1.5 kilometres) below the surface failed, flow estimates rose sharply and the political fallout intensified.
The Interior Department restructured its operations - finally separating safety and environmental enforcement from permitting and revenue generating functions - but still lacks the expertise and the funding to properly oversee the increasingly complex offshore industry.
The moratorium was lifted in October after new safety regulations were established and the first deepwater drilling permit was issued on February 28. Activity is just now picking up, with the tenth permit issued on Friday. - Sapa-AFP
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
NOAA Issues Regulations Governing Navy's Sonar Testing Activities In The Keyport, Washington Range
Underwater Times: NOAA Issues Regulations Governing Navy's Sonar Testing Activities In The Keyport, Washington Range
by Underwatertimes.com News Service - April 12, 2011 19:50 EST
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SILVER SPRING, Maryland -- NOAA's Fisheries Service has issued regulations and a letter of authorization (LOA) to the U.S. Navy that includes measures to protect marine mammals while conducting research, development, test and evaluation activities and range expansion at the Naval Sea System Command Undersea Warfare Center Keyport Range Complex, in waters off the state of Washington.
The regulations require the Navy to implement protective measures to minimize effects on marine mammals.
The Navy requested authorization for the activities under the Marine Mammal Protection Act because while the high and mid-frequency sound generated by sonar, and other active acoustic sources, are not expected to harm marine mammals, they may affect the behavior of some marine mammals or cause a temporary loss of their hearing sensitivity.
Although they also utilize active sonar, the Navy's activities conducted at the Keyport Range Complex are very different from the training activities addressed in other Navy rules. The active sonar and active acoustic sources are lower in volume than those used in training activities. The majority of the sound sources used in the Keyport Range Complex activities are high-frequency sonar sources, which have not been associated with marine mammal strandings and do not propagate sound energy as far as mid-frequency sonar.
NOAA's Fisheries Service does not expect the Navy's activities to result in injury of marine mammals. NOAA is requiring the Navy to use mitigation measures to minimize behavioral effects on and temporary hearing loss by marine mammals. NOAA's Fisheries Service has made a determination that these activities would have only a negligible effect on the species or stocks involved.
Under the authorization, the Navy is required to follow mitigation measures to minimize possible effects on marine mammals, including:
establishing marine mammal safety zones around each vessel using sonar and active acoustic sources and
using Navy marine observers to spot marine mammals so that operations can be shut down if marine mammals are seen within designated safety zones.
These measures should eliminate the potential for injury, minimize behavioral effects, and significantly reduce the number of marine mammals exposed to levels of sound likely to cause temporary loss of hearing. Additionally, the regulations and authorization include an adaptive management component that requires the Navy and NOAA's Fisheries Service to meet yearly to discuss new science and Navy research and development.
The Navy has developed a monitoring plan to help better understand how marine mammals respond to various levels of sound and to assess the effectiveness of mitigation measures. Implementation of this monitoring plan is a requirement of the regulations and the authorization, and its results will be reviewed annually as part of the adaptive management component. Additionally, the Navy has developed (with input from NOAA's Fisheries Service) an integrated comprehensive monitoring plan to better prioritize monitoring goals and standardize data collection methods across all of their U.S. range complexes and study areas.
The Navy has been conducting research, development, test and evaluation activities, including the use of active sonar and active acoustic sources in the Keyport Range Complex for more than 60 years. The Navy provides research, development, test and evaluation activities and in-service support for expeditionary maneuver warfare, operations in extreme environments, and coastal operations.
This regulation, which will remain in effect for five years, governs the incidental take of marine mammals during the Navy's research, development, test and evaluation activities, and includes required mitigation and monitoring measures. The letters of authorization, which are required for the Navy to legally conduct their activities, are issued annually, provided the Navy abides by the terms and conditions of the letter, submits the required annual reports, and shows their activities do not result in more significant effects to marine mammals than authorized
by Underwatertimes.com News Service - April 12, 2011 19:50 EST
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SILVER SPRING, Maryland -- NOAA's Fisheries Service has issued regulations and a letter of authorization (LOA) to the U.S. Navy that includes measures to protect marine mammals while conducting research, development, test and evaluation activities and range expansion at the Naval Sea System Command Undersea Warfare Center Keyport Range Complex, in waters off the state of Washington.
The regulations require the Navy to implement protective measures to minimize effects on marine mammals.
The Navy requested authorization for the activities under the Marine Mammal Protection Act because while the high and mid-frequency sound generated by sonar, and other active acoustic sources, are not expected to harm marine mammals, they may affect the behavior of some marine mammals or cause a temporary loss of their hearing sensitivity.
Although they also utilize active sonar, the Navy's activities conducted at the Keyport Range Complex are very different from the training activities addressed in other Navy rules. The active sonar and active acoustic sources are lower in volume than those used in training activities. The majority of the sound sources used in the Keyport Range Complex activities are high-frequency sonar sources, which have not been associated with marine mammal strandings and do not propagate sound energy as far as mid-frequency sonar.
NOAA's Fisheries Service does not expect the Navy's activities to result in injury of marine mammals. NOAA is requiring the Navy to use mitigation measures to minimize behavioral effects on and temporary hearing loss by marine mammals. NOAA's Fisheries Service has made a determination that these activities would have only a negligible effect on the species or stocks involved.
Under the authorization, the Navy is required to follow mitigation measures to minimize possible effects on marine mammals, including:
establishing marine mammal safety zones around each vessel using sonar and active acoustic sources and
using Navy marine observers to spot marine mammals so that operations can be shut down if marine mammals are seen within designated safety zones.
These measures should eliminate the potential for injury, minimize behavioral effects, and significantly reduce the number of marine mammals exposed to levels of sound likely to cause temporary loss of hearing. Additionally, the regulations and authorization include an adaptive management component that requires the Navy and NOAA's Fisheries Service to meet yearly to discuss new science and Navy research and development.
The Navy has developed a monitoring plan to help better understand how marine mammals respond to various levels of sound and to assess the effectiveness of mitigation measures. Implementation of this monitoring plan is a requirement of the regulations and the authorization, and its results will be reviewed annually as part of the adaptive management component. Additionally, the Navy has developed (with input from NOAA's Fisheries Service) an integrated comprehensive monitoring plan to better prioritize monitoring goals and standardize data collection methods across all of their U.S. range complexes and study areas.
The Navy has been conducting research, development, test and evaluation activities, including the use of active sonar and active acoustic sources in the Keyport Range Complex for more than 60 years. The Navy provides research, development, test and evaluation activities and in-service support for expeditionary maneuver warfare, operations in extreme environments, and coastal operations.
This regulation, which will remain in effect for five years, governs the incidental take of marine mammals during the Navy's research, development, test and evaluation activities, and includes required mitigation and monitoring measures. The letters of authorization, which are required for the Navy to legally conduct their activities, are issued annually, provided the Navy abides by the terms and conditions of the letter, submits the required annual reports, and shows their activities do not result in more significant effects to marine mammals than authorized
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